Vimeo On Demand

Vimeo has officially launched its pay-to-view service, Vimeo On Demand, which will allow Vimeo Pro members to sell their creations directly to the public before YouTube has made a decision on there pre-pay pay-to-view service.

YouTube already has a pay-to-view service if you want to rent, buy or view movies and TV shows but they are only for Blockbusters and big hit TV shows that you are able to watch re-runs of or get on DVD's. Vimeo is different and ahead of the YouTube decision pay-to-view service.

What Vimeo has done is that they have allowed the creators set their own prices for their work, choose which countries to make their work available to and customise their Vimeo page design. Vimeo On Demand also enables users to offer their creative content via the Vimeo site, as well as their own websites. But the creators have to keep in mind that when they are setting there price that Vimeo takes 10% to deal with the transaction costs. The creators still keep 90% of the cost.

One of the first films to be offered through the payment system is called "Such a Beautiful Day", starting at $2 (£1.34) for per-viewing rental or $6 (£4.03) for a "sale" which lets a member of the site view it when logged in any number of times.

To be honest, if I am paying $6 (£4.03) for the convenience of watching a film online then I would buy the DVD. This is because the quality of the film that you would be watching would be the same or better, you are less likely to get buffering and your not using bandwidth.